From Data to Insights

“Perfection is achieved not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away”
(Antoine de Saint-Exupery)

Recently, I got an opportunity to work on a data visualisation project. Initially it appeared to be a simple graph but when I went deep, there were a lot of factors involved to make it more insightful. I have not shared the screens here due to confidentiality of the project but I have documented important points to kickstart the visualisation.

Once you are clear with the above parameters, it is time to go into design mode. Below are few points that can help in designing effectively.

Design approach:

1. Choose the right display media: For displaying the right chart, the most important thing is to understand the need. Eg: To show comparisons, Bar charts would be more effective and to show pattern over a period of time, line graph would be a better choice. Here is the reference (by A. Abela) for the same.

2. Identify the Content that really matters:

#Rule 1 Data should be the star of the show.

#Rule 2 Add meaningful context.

#Rule3 Go by ‘Less is More’ approach. Maximize data-ink ratio.

Edward R. Tufte offers this design principle:

Maximize the data-ink ratio, within reason. Every bit of ink on a graphic requires a reason. And nearly always that reason should be that the ink presents new information.